Piledriver

It’s nice to see AMD taking the initiative in releasing some upgraded “stock” coolers with their CPUs. Those in the enthusiast community likely have a shelf full of “stock” coolers from both AMD and Intel that due to their lackluster performance have never been used. Starting in February, AMD announced the Wraith cooler, which came bundled with the AMD FX 8370 and the AMD A10-7890K. They have now expanded the Wraith CPU cooler availability to the AMD FX 8350 and the AMD FX 6350. Read More

When we looked at the Piledriver CPU, we ran it with our standard CPU review HD 6970. However, our CPU review game and 3D benchmark suite is a bit long in the tooth. In an effort to keep our readers more well-informed, we went back to the drawing board to run our much more modern gaming suite (which we use in all GPU reviews) on a more modern, powerful GPU – the ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP. Read More

According to the website Hexus.net, AMD is preparing Piledriver CPUs sometime in August. This is welcome news for AMD fans who have pretty much dispaired since Bulldozer debuted last year. It wasn’t a bad CPU per se’, but compared with Ivy Bridge, it’s just not competitive. Read More